For 50 years, San Francisco’s Kronos Quartet — David Harrington (violin), Gabriela Díaz (violin), Ayane Kozasa (viola), and Paul Wiancko (cello) — has challenged and reimagined what a string quartet can be. Founded at a time when the form was largely centered on long-established, Western European traditions, Kronos has been at the forefront of revolutionizing the string quartet into a living art form. Today, with new voices and renewed vision, Kronos continues to forge the sound of the people and issues of our time.
In line with Kronos’s ethos of presenting varied and compelling programs, the quartet will create a tailor-made concert experience for the presenter, drawing from today’s most pressing issues.
RESPONDING TO WAR
Terry Riley: One Earth, One People, One Love
George Crumb: Black Angels
Neil Young: Ohio
Steve Reich: Different Trains
Mary Kouyoumdjian: Bombs of Beirut
For 51 years, Kronos has supported the work of composers who confront the atrocities and tragedies of war through music and protest. GEORGE CRUMB’s Black Angels is the piece that set Kronos down the activist path. Written during the Vietnam War and subtitled “Thirteen Images from the Dark Land,” this iconic work conveys Crumb’s grief over the direction the world was heading in. In her program note for Bombs of Beirut, MARY KOUYOUMDJIAN writes, “Inspired by loved ones who grew up during the Lebanese Civil War, it is my hope that Bombs of Beirut provides a sonic picture of what day-to-day life is like in a turbulent Middle East—not filtered through the news and media, but through the real words of real people.” NEIL YOUNG’s response to the 1970 Kent State shootings came in the form of the enduring protest song Ohio, newly arranged for Kronos by cellist Paul Wiancko. STEVE REICH uses interviews of Holocaust survivors and others who suffered through World War II in his groundbreaking 27-minute quartet Different Trains. TERRY RILEY’s One Earth, One People, One Love is a plea for peace.
CIVIL RIGHTS
Stacey Garrop: Glorious Mahalia
Abel Meeropol: Strange Fruit
John Coltrane: Alabama
Zachary Watkins: Peace Be Till (with video)
Link Wray: Rumble
Ken Benshoof: John Brown’s Body
Charlton Singleton: New work TBD feat. Quentin Baxter, percussion (2025/26 season)
The works included in this list explore iconic activist voices of America from the 20th century and beyond. Kronos pays homage to the beloved voice of Mahalia Jackson and her vital friendships with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and oral historian/activist Studs Terkel. A daughter of Jim Crow Louisiana and the Great Migration, Jackson was a woman of deep faith, whose key role in historic moments in the fight for civil rights lays the groundwork for two major works on this program – Zachary J. Watkins’s Peace Be Till, featuring the recorded voice of Dr. King’s lawyer and speechwriter Clarence B. Jones, and Stacy Garrop’s Glorious Mahalia, featuring a recorded interview between Jackson and Terkel.
CLIMATE CHANGE
Peni Candra Rini: Hujan
Peni Candra Rini: Segara Gunung
Tanya Tagaq: Sivunittinni
Gabriella Smith: Keep Going
Soo Yeon Lyuh: Sounds of Resilience
Hildur Guðnadóttir: Folk Faer Andlit
Mariana Sadovska: Chernobyl: The Harvest
Benedicte Maurseth / Kristine Tjøgersen: Elja
Kronos explores the rich beauty of our planet and the urgency to preserve the environment, told through the voices of some of today’s most illustrious composers and musicians. Peni Candra Rini incorporates sounds of rain and frogs sourced from Indonesia, and Gabriella Smith uses interviews with individuals who are tackling the climate crisis. Soo Yeon Lyuh seeks to preserve and explore the sounds of the Korean women divers of Jeju Island whose culture is threatened by environmental impact.
Contact Us
We invite you to contact us now about finding a date to bring the Evolving World of Kronos to your series in the 2026/27 season.